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Amazing amber

COPILED BY ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN

CRAUGASTOR: Preserved in amber.

A miner from Mexico's Chiapas state has made the find of a lifetime — a tiny tree frog preserved in amber that could be 25 million years old, a scientist recently announced. The block of amber, or fossilised tree resin, encasing the 0.4-inch (1-centimeter) frog was unearthed in 2005 and sold to a private collector, according to the Associated Press. The collector then lent the piece to scientists. The specimen appears to belong to the genus Craugastor, said Gerardo Carbot, of the Chiapas Natural History and Ecology Institute, who has been studying the find. This genus includes many modern frogs native to Central America.

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